| Reasons to buy local produce: fresher (doesn’t travel 1-2 weeks to get here); fewer/no preservatives or genetic modifications to extend freshness; save energy (local production takes 3-17% less oil); less packaging; support our local farmers and economy. |
Which of your favorite produce is “dirty” (loaded with pesticides) and which “clean,” and how do those pesticides harm our bodies? Do you really want to eat those strawberries or raisins? Download the 2020 Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce to see what’s “clean” and what’s “dirty.” (Raisins not included because the list doesn’t include processed foods, but 99% have pesticide residue and up to 26 pesticides can be on them).
Those plastic mesh bags that produce comes in can be used for another purpose before they hit the trash can. Take off any staples or labels, tie them into a tight knot (or series of knots), and use them instead of pot scrubbers or steel wool pads.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
You may have heard in today’s news that thick-skinned produce, like bananas and avocados–are no healthier organic as they are regularly grown. Pesticides don’t get through their thick skins. Still, wash them anyway to get rid of residue.
However, the nonprofit group dedicated to promoting and protecting people’s health, the Environmental Working Group, has a publication called Shoppers’ Guide to Pesticides in Produce. In it, they list their “Clean Fifteen.” Based on 43,000 pesticide tests, these have been shown to be just as safe whether organic or grown the regular way.
They also list what they call the “Dirty Dozen,” ones with the most pesticides.
So now you know, when you shop for produce, which ones it pays to spend extra on organic and which “organic” ones are just a waste of money.
Tonight, cook dinner and throw away 1/3 before you serve it to your family. Sounds not only wasteful but downright stupid, doesn’t it? However, that’s the amount of the food that we grow in our world that goes to waste. And yet there is famine, hunger, and food insecurity among children while our landfills overflow.
Supermarkets put out only the perfect produce for us to buy. They know that we won’t pay their prices for misshapen vegetables or fruit that has a slight bruise. Not that we get the chance to buy it, because stores toss it out, even though it tastes the same and is just as nutritious. After all, it’s all grown the same, in dirt or dangling from buggy trees.
I like the idea of a Canadian company who is packaging its appropriately named “No Name Naturally Imperfect” produce. These fruits and veggies can sell to markets cheaper, and markets can sell to us for less. In fact, Raley’s Nob Hill has announced that they’ll do just that in the near future.
I’ll be in line to buy it. I like saving money, getting a bargain, and eating apples that aren’t perfectly rounded or a shiny uniform color. Who knows? I might even learn to eat healthy.